I think open sourcing XP is a great idea. It works for all other open source software, so I cant see why it cant work for XP.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think the number of dedicated XP users, who will use no other OS, is probably not that many people, relatively speaking compared with the total user base.
XP contains tons of licensed components and patented technologies. Microsoft was paying royalties on those - like the A/V codecs. Who is going to pay those if XP is open-sourced? The licensors will never even allow their code to, effectively, become open source alongside the XP - and without that code you cannot rebuild (and patch) XP.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think the number of dedicated XP users, who will use no other OS, is probably not that many people, relatively speaking compared with the total user base.
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That is probably true for home users (especially with new systems forcing people to Windows 8, yuck), but there are a surprising number of businesses still running XP. And even then we’re not necessarily talking about desktop computers; there are a bunch of kiosks and point-of-sale machines (cash registers) out there that run XP.
The guy writing the article makes some good points, but he’s a smug S.O.B. who I wouldn’t cry over if he fell down a couple of flights of stairs.
The “dedicated XP users” will use a new Windows OS. It’s really funny to me how much loyalty XP has now, when it came out everybody hated it, the ugly toy block style of buttons, the re-arranging of the start menu, the quick launch bar. These things were all loathed, now it’s EOLed and suddenly (well OK not that suddenly) XP is the perfect OS. I see the same thing among my Dr Who fans, they always hate the new Dr Who but by the time he leaves they love him, one of the best ever, and man that new guy sucks.